Title
A Resolution Of The City Commission Of The City Of Hollywood, Florida, Relating To The Provision Of Fire Rescue Services, Facilities And Programs In The City Of Hollywood, Florida; Establishing The Estimated Assessment Rate For Fire Rescue Assessments For The Fiscal Year Beginning October 1, 2018; Directing The Preparation Of An Assessment Roll; Authorizing A Public Hearing And Directing The Provision Of Notice Thereof; Providing For Conflicts; Providing For Severability; And Providing An Effective Date.
Body
Staff Recommends: Approval of the attached Resolution.
Explanation:
In June 1996, the City of Hollywood imposed a fire rescue non-ad valorem assessment to provide funding for the City’s fire rescue services, facilities and programs beginning in FY 1997. The City has reimposed the fire rescue assessment in every fiscal year since FY 1997. The assessment pays for a portion of the cost of fire rescue services provided to properties located in the City of Hollywood. The remainder of the cost is funded from other City revenue sources.
The annual fire rescue non-ad valorem assessment is levied against all assessed residential and non-residential properties in the City (with the exception of wholly tax-exempt government properties and institutional properties, or of those portions of government properties and institutional properties that are tax-exempt, and vacant land parcels), and appears on each property owner’s annual property tax bill as a non-ad valorem assessment.
The Preliminary Rate Resolution, as defined in and required by Ordinance O-96-17, initiates the annual process for updating the assessment roll and reimposing the fire rescue assessment. The Preliminary Rate Resolution sets forth the estimated fire rescue assessment rate schedule and the estimated amount of revenue to be provided by the assessment for FY 2019.
The City periodically updates the fire rescue assessment rate study which recalculates the fire rescue rates based on updated fire rescue call data and total assessable costs. The City’s fire rescue assessment consultant, Government Services Group, Inc. (GSG) recently completed an update of the rate study for FY 2019. Based on that study (Exhibit 1), we are recommending the residential rate for FY 2019 be set at $285.00. This will result in a projected fire rescue assessment roll of approximately $28,257,546.00. Setting the fire rescue assessments rates at this level will fund approximately 97.5% of the total assessable costs of providing fire rescue services.
The change in residential rate from $222.00 to $285.00 represents a 28% increase. This increase is primarily a result of the increase in assessable costs as compared to the prior study completed in 2016, as well as a shift in service calls from non-residential to residential properties. Additional square footage rate tiers have been added to better distribute the cost attributable to larger buildings. This has resulted in a rate reduction in all tiers under 75,000 SF across all non-residential fire classes.
Total revenue budgeted in the Proposed FY 2019 Budget for the Fire Rescue Assessment is $26,841,000.00, which is 95% of the total anticipated revenues of $28,257,546.00.
The required Public Hearing will be held on September 12, 2018 at 5:30 p.m. Notification of the public hearing will be mailed to all property owners by August 24, 2018 by the Broward County Property Appraiser as part of the TRIM notice.
Recommended for inclusion on the agenda by:
Dr. Wazir Ishmael, City Manager
Cintya Ramos, Director of Financial Services Department
Christopher Pratt, Fire Chief